Meschiya Lake & The Little Big Horns

Meschiya began her singing career at the age of nine, earning a
regular gig and winning $500 upon winning an adults only singing
contest in a South Dakota Steakhouse. In 2000 as a young woman, she
met and began traveling with the Know Nothing Family Zirkus Zideshow
and End of the World Circus - a troupe blending traditional circus
arts with modern sideshow varieties where Meschiya honed her
performance skills with such thrilling acts as glass and insect eating
and fire dancing (dangerously twirling around on stage with
flame-doused nunchucks). It was while touring with this troupe that
she fell in love with and felt immediately embraced by the culturally
rich and one of a kind city of New Orleans, her home base for the last
decade and counting.

In the Spring of 2007, Meschiya began singing with the traditional
jazz outfit the Loose Marbles on the French Quarters Royal Street. Joined by jazz dancers Chance Bushman and Amy Johnson, a new revival of traditional jazz and dance consequently blossomed:
Bringing the joy and vitality of New Orleanss spirit, wowing
audiences both young and old alike, they toured the United States and
Europe, playing on streets, in clubs, and leaving a trail of write-ups
in publications along the way. Dan Baum of the New Yorker
writes"Meschiya Lake rocks back on her heels, lifts her chest, and
opens her throat like an air raid siren to croon in a thrilling
pre-microphone style that...can make you feel by turns as though you
were shivering around a campfire in a railroad (yard) or drinking in a
budapest nightclub in 1938."

Upon the tours return in the Fall of 2007, her acquisition for
musical knowledge insatiable, Meschiya took up the guitar and banjo
and, with singer Erika Lewis, formed The Magnolia Beacon, creating
original, dark, melodic, minor keyed compositions focusing on vocal
harmony. Taking their hit duo on the road, the two songstresses grew
and solidified fan bases in New York and Berlin, on the streets and
clubs of France and Latvia, and every spot along the way and in
between, the success of their songs even finding their way into the
German movie by writer Kerstin Hoekel "Peirogi".

Once back home in New Orleans, she delighted in participating in and
watching the jazz revival unfold around her, with jazz and jazz dance
fever bringing more and more musicians and dancers to town. Meschiya
formed The Little Big Horns Jazz Band in the Spring of 2009 and,
saving pennies from the street, she produced the first Little Big
Horns album Lucky Devil to National Acclaim. On the 5th anniversary
of Katrina, DJ David Kunian of WWOZ cited Lucky Devil as one of his
four favorite releases of 2010 on NPRs All Things Considered.

More Press!!:

Since teaming up with the UK based Brookfield-Knights Agency and Bloody-great PR, the Lil Big Horns have been getting some Great Reviews!:

"With the superlative and atmospheric playing of The Little Big Horns providing the perfect musical setting, Meschiya Lake has given this fantastic music a new lease of life" - Dave Haslam, R2 (Rock 'n' Reel) magazine, UK.

“The album is a big and bold mix of jazz and blues, her own compositions mixing with material from the early twentieth century. It has the same feeling of being old yet totally of the here and now that few other artists manage to capture (The Carolina Chocolate Drops being one of the few that stand out).

“Lake doesn't need to hide behind a microphone with her big bold ragtime jazz voice. It is something that singles out the leaders of a revival, their gifts revitalise the source, and that is what you hear all the way through this album.

“A UK tour is in the planning stages for 2012 and with the buzz surrounding her is sure to be a hot ticket” - Spiral Earth (UK)

"...the timeless sound of the Little Big Horns...is nothing short of a steaming bowl of red hot Creole gumbo with a glass of bourbon on the side....a gem of a record.." -Liam Wilkinson, Northern Sky